The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-08-05

OF the worlds population those VINO 90
not laugh are. it is safe to assume in the
minority. Laughter is language known
10 all races in an lands. From the Zee
sounding "haw haw' Of the male New
Highlander 10 the high strung cachnua-
ton 81 the South Sea islander, there may
be a. wide a range Of information and exc
pression as there Is Of chronological posse
tion; but as a rule laughter means hut
one thing tickling of thc fancy oi me
person who laughs six years ago bcccher
asked from a lecture platform 300 New
York IL any q his hearers had ever heard
n Chinese laugh. the question being
worded In q way intended to Imply 20
NEGATIVE answer That tine Celestial can
and does give vent to IBIS mIrih.ul ioDl
inQs after the manner OF other morHls
can readily DE aftcstcd hy ans one who
has long resided Zoo san Francisco IO Dee
sure. the Chinese laugh is rarely a~ hearty
or expressive as the American az
European II IS oftcncr utter Cham "a
genuine outburst Of mcrrumcnt There
Is little character or force boo it As Tor
the Arabian laugh. we hear little AZ its
hilarious ring through the ages oi nHrih
in the Old World The Arab IS generally
looked upon as a stolid fellow maui
likely 10 persist iu refusing t0 give one the
benefit of a mirthful appreciation of "a
Joke even If he saw the point Travellers
say. however. that hc does hugh on 0cca
sion. but that he must either soe good rea-
son for il beforehand or be surlr .d into
st. III Persia q man who laughs IS cone
sidered ef1eminate but free license is said
70 be given 10 female merriment Fred
Burnaby has written Of his experiences
among the laughing beauties Of % certain
district in the northern part Of that country
He says that under cover Of thegoO3 nature
implied by theiE-uretendcd joAlty. they
make bold 10 fitch everything Traveller
may have in his possession One reacS oi
the grave Turk and the "sODer E-Yp-
tian, " but it not recorded that they never
have moments Of mirin-whcn the fcZ
hobs or the veil shakes under pre7W of
some particularly good thing In Ma
hOmet himself Christian writers have
noted cOrdiality and j0cosencss, and they
say there was a good ringing laugh boz the
prophet with oil his seriousness
An American traveller in EuroJc rec
marks the Italian laugh as lan-Ud bat
musical. the German as deliberate. the
French as spasmOdic and uuceIfain the
upper class English as we'll guarded and
not always genuine, the lower class Ing
lsh a. explosive, the Scotch OF all classes
as hearty, and the Irish as rollickug
There is much that is indicative of char
acter in the laugh Of some people while
in others Of strong personality tine lHu-h
is the weakest and most charctCI.c--
thing about them. II is said of Nelson
that his laugh was often without spirit.
Napoleon laughed little. aud not always
at things in which men NJ bis command
ing dignity might be expected ~ ind any
thing funny When Washington cared to
break through his natural reserve Dee
could laugh as long and as l0ud 90, any
one, but his Diographers record hut few
instances of the display 81 POPULARITY ou
the part Of the father OF his country 4
laughing president does not cat Do worry
digmfcd figure before one who Is im
pressed with the belief that sentences is
necessary attribute Of % g0ycrnmert.s
chief executive, vet Lincoln madc bold tO
laugh whenever he chose always WELDON
ing good story teller, and relating 0ith
much good feeling drOll tales Of his own
life Webster could tell a good story,
often az his own expense. and join hcartly
with his hearers in the laugh at The eLd.
He had true laugh. There are those
men, as Carlyle has tritely remarked,
whose laugh is as untrue rs anything
about them.
In the Bible the words laugh
daughter and Laughing occur only
thirteen times, which, while in keeping
with the gravity Of the text IS considered
by some commentators ne rather singular
Milton makes little use of the word IN
his works. Shakespeare employs IL free
quently and often epiHammatcally ] D.
nysons men and women laugh inirc-
Quently, although they sometimes smile.
Dickens made a great deal Of thc laugh,
and often managed thereby 90 give thc
reader q clew 20 the character Of his mcu
and women.
Like the careful student Of human ma
ture that she was, George Eliot made nofe
Of the thousand and one ways iu win
character discloses itself through the
medium Of the laugh
In this merry age a good langhis proha-
bly, enjoyed as much as 10 ever was in The
worlds history But what would Nuke IS
man laugh ten or twenty years ago cannot
be relied upon % do $50 now. Practical
Jokes. for instance. are $500 longer popular,
and witticisms Of the studied ORDER oven
i'm comic opera OF hurlesQuc. often fail of
appreciation And there is the difference
in national taste A joke that sctsan Eng
lishmln or a German roaring is nine
times ont Of ten voted tame If NOT stupid.
by the American Our modcm wits rcly
less upon cap and bells than upon Keen
satire and quick rcpurtee The laugh
thus created is always spontaneous. aud